RIGHT OF A STATE TO SUCCESSFULLY REQUEST THE EXTRADITION OF A CRIMINAL

OFFENDER ARISES FROM A TREATY WITH THE REQUESTED STATE

GOVERNMENT OF HONGKONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION, REPRESENTED BY

THE PHILIPPINE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, PETITIONER, VS. JUAN ANTONIO MUNOZ,
RESPONDENT.
G.R. No. 207342, August 16, 2016

BERSAMIN, J.:

DOCTRINE:

Extradition is the surrender by one nation to another of an individual accused or

convicted of an offense outside of its own territory, and within the territorial jurisdiction of
the other, which, being competent to try and to punish him, demands the surrender. Thus, a
state must extradite only when obliged by treaty to do so. The right of a state to
successfully request the extradition of a criminal offender arises from a treaty with the
requested state. The extradition treaty creates the reciprocal obligation to surrender
persons from the requested state's jurisdiction charged or convicted of certain crimes
committed within the requesting state's territory, and is of the same level as a law passed
by the Legislatures of the respective parties.

FACTS:

The case is the third in the trilogy of cases that started with the 2000 case of Cuevas
v. Muñoz, which dealt with respondent Juan Antonio Munoz's provisional arrest as an
extraditee, and the 2007 case of Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region v.
Olalia, Jr., which resolved the question of Muñ oz's right to bail as a potential extraditee.
Both rulings dealt with and resolved incidents arising during the process of having Munoz
extradited to Hong Kong under and pursuant to the Agreement Between the Government of
the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of Hong Kong for the Surrender of
Accused and Convicted Persons (RP-HK Agreement). Petitioner HKSAR posits that
respondent Muñ oz must be extradited for the crime of accepting an advantage as an agent on
the basis of the ruling in B. v. The Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against
Corruption the term agent in Section 9 of the HKSAR’s Prevention of Bribery Ordinance
(POB) also covered public servants in another jurisdiction.

ISSUE:

Whether or not respondent Antonio Muñ oz could be extradited to and tried by the
HKSAR for the crime of accepting an advantage as an agent?
RULING:

The petition was denied.

Respondent cannot be extradited to the jurisdiction of HKSAR. The extradition

treaty creates the reciprocal obligation to surrender persons from the requested state's
jurisdiction charged or convicted of certain crimes committed within the requesting state's
territory, and is of the same level as a law passed by the Legislatures of the respective
parties.

The RP-HK Agreement is still in full force and effect as an extradition treaty. The
procedures therein delineated regulate the rights and obligations of the Republic of the
Philippines and the HKSAR under the treaty in the handling of extradition requests.
For purposes of the extradition of Munoz, the HKSAR as the requesting state must establish
the following six elements, namely: (1) there must be an extradition treaty in force
between the HKSAR and the Philippines; (2) the criminal charges that are pending in the
HKSAR against the person to be extradited; (3) the crimes for which the person to be
extradited is charged are extraditable within the terms of the treaty; (4) the individual
before the court is the same person charged in the HKSAR; (5) the evidence submitted
establishes probable cause to believe that the person to be extradited committed the
offenses charged; and (6) the offenses are criminal in both the HKSAR and the Philippines
(double criminality rule).

Under the double criminality rule, the extraditable offense must be criminal under
the laws of both the requesting and the requested states". This simply means that the
requested state comes under no obligation to surrender the person if its laws do not regard
the conduct covered by the request for extradition as criminal.

Transactions were entered into in behalf of the Central Bank of the Philippines, an
instrumentality of the Philippine Government, Munoz should be charged for the offenses
not as a regular agent or one representing a private entity but as a public servant or
employee of the Philippine Government. Yet, because the offense of accepting an advantage
as an agent charged against him in the HKSAR is one that deals with private sector bribery,
the conditions for the application of the double criminality rule are obviously not met.
Accordingly, the crime of accepting an advantage as an agent must be dropped from the
request for extradition.